KOTA KINABALU: Police had to open fire at the tire of a car after the driver, believed to be a drug dealer, attempted to run over policemen who were conducting an anti-narcotics raid in Sabah’s east coast Sandakan district.

The police also had to clarify what actually went down during the incident, which took place at about 11.15am on Monday (Aug 22) at Mile 12, Sungai Manila after a 30-second clip surfaced and went viral in social media.

Sandakan OCPD Asst Comm Abdul Fuad Abdul Malek said five of his men had earlier tried to stop the car driven by the suspect at a parking lot at the said location.

He said, however, the suspect instead acted aggressively and almost ran down a policeman.

“This forced the policeman to fire a shot at one of the car’s tires to stop the vehicle from ramming into him,” he said, in a statement on Monday.

“At the same time, the other policemen also tried to stop the vehicle by attempting to break the front windscreen using their walkie-talkies,” he added.

ACP Abdul Fuad said the suspect, however, managed to escape.

He said they managed to locate the vehicle that was abandoned on the roadside about 2km from where the incident took place.

“Efforts are underway to track down the suspect,” he added.

Towards this end, he urged those with information pertaining to the case to contact the investigating officer Asst Supt R Jas Dewd at 013-3598455.